Eye for an eye
by Wanacoba
Summary: The marker is gone, the visions of the marker are gone, even the guilt is gone... now he can look once more at his past with her and move on... maybe a little sooner than he expected.  M for words used  IsaacXNicole - IsaacXEllie
1. Painful narration

The gunship wouldn't stop shaking from the effects the explosion that occurred inside the marker facility that they left behind.

When they were at ease, Ellie looked at the controls quietly, not saying a word to Isaac. She felt stared, so she looked at him who looked at her with a weird look on his face

"What?" Said Ellie with a smile.

"Oh... um... I don't really know how to say this... but... thanks for coming back for m- aghh!" He said, when he really meant to say that he thought he would see Nicole at his side.

He suddenly felt a big hit to his cheek, not as painful as the attack of a slasher or as demolishing as the charge of a Brute... it was a slap.

"You better be thankful! I was worried sick about you! You are a selfish bastard you knew that?" She looked, sounded angry. Best guess would be that... she was angry as hell with a mixture of concern.

"I-I'm sorry... I just didn't want to carry on knowing I was putting you in danger... I won't let someone beloved to me die again... it already happened with Nicole..." He wasn't actually meaning he felt something for Ellie, though they had some sort of flirtatious conversations and he appreciated her a lot.

"Oh... um... it- it's okay. I was worried... um yeah... worried..." She avoided his look, he could have sworn she was blushing, but as for what he thought, he just feels tired and believes that it's his imagination.

"So... how much time do we have until we get to Zeus Station?" Isaac just wanted to flee to the nearest point with human life so he could successfully warn of the dangers of the marker and the true nature of the so-called "holy convergence".

"Jupiter? Well... according to the computer..." she touched some options on the hologram screen until the route was marked on a map and she continued "... it will be at least 2 days" She was kind of disapointed, but she couldn't argue... the gunship wasn't a ship made for fast travel. However, it had the ability for space travel.

"Well, at least we have life support, a bathroom in the back, and enough food for triple the time we have to travel"

"Yeah... hey mind if I ask something?" She looked curious, rather different as he just talked to her in situations of danger or the sort.

"Well... we have two days and nothing to do... go ahead"

"How was Nicole?"

"N-Nicole?... um... I... she..." He looked nervous, it obviously wasn't a comfortable subject for him.

"I'm sorry if it was too sudden, you just dealt with this... you don't need me to be asking you such things"

"No... it's okay... I appreciate your concern. But I also need to talk about it..." He sighed and took a deep breath like preparing himself for a task where great effort is required.

"She and I started going out six years ago... I met her because of a mistake of mine..."

"A mistake? What kind of mistake?"

"Well... I was working on the CEC building at Mars... just transferred there..." As Isaac was telling his story, the memories came to him and it was like a vivid image.

"_All passengers please check your belongings before leaving the transport, CEC personnel does not take responsability for thefts or missing items, thank you_" and a catchy tune played after the message from the computer system.

The ship docked and the doors opened, divided in groups, people started walking to different places... some walked in a group of pilots, other of miners, a small group of heavy machinery handlers and a lone engineer.

He was young and was just using his civilian clothes, his suit had been delivered earlier along with his stuff to his new apartment. As he was going to ask for directions towards the engineering's office, a man in an engineering suit came to him and asked

"Isaac Clarke?" He looked tough and old with a scar on his face. Exactly above his left eyebrow... he must have been a veteran from the resource wars, Isaac asumed.

"Um, yeah... who are you?"

"I was sent to guide you to your new working station. The name's Frank Gilmore"

"Thanks sir... well, you already know but... Isaac Clarke" He shook his hand and quickly he started following the man.

"So... fresh from good ol' earth?" He said while walking ahead of him.

"Yeah... a year and a half working at CEC from earth and then they ordered my transfer to mars a few weeks ago"

"Well, just so you know, things aren't easy on mars, lots of malfunctions out in space, you gotta' be skilled on zero gravity"

"Ok, sir... no problem"

They walked quietly for a while until they got to an office with the CEC logo on a wall.

"Okay... you go there fill in some forms and papers checking that you arrived and then go to the shift distribution office down that hall..." he pointed a long hallway that seemed to lead to another lobby."... and check you shifts, when you start I'll guide you and tell you what to do, when you get used to it, you go alone unless it's a 2 person job... got all that, kid?"

"Sure sir! Um... filling forms here, and check my shifts and when I start you'll guide me... got it" Isaac tried to leave a good impression but he knew Frank couldn't shake the cliché of rookies.

"Okay, see you later, kid"

The next hour Isaac filled his registration papers at the office, took note of his shifts and headed to his place.

Then, after some sleep and a video call from his mother Octavia, to check up on him. He headed fo his first day of job in Mars.

"You ready, kid?" Frank was putting on his stasis module and checking his RIG.

"Yeah, done here"

"Well, then let's go... I was told there was communication antenna broken down at the government sector and... well, we are needed"

Isaac felt excited, his fist job was a zero gravity one. He was eager to try and prove himself useful to the work he always wanted to do, besides... he enjoyed zero gravity.

They took the tram towards government sector along with some guards and people who might work there too, apart from people who might have some errands to run. Some could be seen talking, joking or whispering. He knew some people didn't like engineers thinking stuff like: "engineers are nerds"

When they got there, they asked at reception and after confirmation they were given the location of the communication antenna.

"Here we are, kid. We'll both go and replace it... know how to replace it?" He obviously was trying to see if he at least knew how to do his job. Besides, he didn't like training rookie engineers.

"Sure thing... you disconnect the power soure at the base of the structure, then take out the crews with kinesis, remove old antenna and then it's just putting the new one with screws and reconnect... then the configuration is a thing they must solve..."

"At least you know the theory, let's see how you handle practice, kid"

Isaac was growing tired of Gilmore calling him kid all the time. He would tell him sometime... but he just felt like if he complained he would punch him... he did have a really serious face that made him look pissed off most of the time. Forgetting that, both Isaac and his, for now mentor, Gilmore went ahead to the decompression chamber, the decompression went okay... they had 2 and a half minutes of oxygen plus canister suppliers right next to the antenna.

Once the door opened, they deactivated the fixations on their boots and started flying towards the antenna. While Gilmore disconnected the power unit, Isaac waited next to the antenna.

"Ok, I'm ready kid. You go on ahead and take out the screws... I'm bringing the new antenna"

"Got it, I'll take care of it" Isaac said as he was just taking the first screw. He removed a total of 12 screws, and they weren't small, they were heavy but, well... without gravity he couldn't tell. As he took the last one and started removing the antenna Gilmore came with the new one.

"Good job kid, looks like you are doing well... maybe you're gonna be just fine here on Mars after all" At least he showed some appreciation for his work. "Go and re install the power unit, I'll go ahead and install the new antenna... I'll tell you when I'm done"

Isaac started flying down, heading to the power unit at the base of the structure. He felt really happy about his current job and he was happy his first job was to do some Zero G related reparation. He did love Zero G.

"Ok, I'm at the power unit, are you done there?" He didn't expect him to be, just a mere '_almost done'._

"Done, go ahead and connect the energy cell" He couldn't imagine it, he was really quick... for his age he would have thought but age wasn't a major factor.

"Ok..." He took the energy cell and while carrying it towards the power unit, he accidentally bumped it against a wall. ".. agh! Shit!"

"What's wrong kid? Is there a problem?" He could look tough and pissed all the time but he did sound like a concerned superior.

"N-nothing, hitted my foot to the wall while turning in the air... nothing serious" He couldn't go arround saying he damaged an energy cell on his first day of job... as much as they built them on large scale, they weren't cheap. He kept moving the energy cell and installed it... as it started lighting the green and blue lights he was about to say he was done but...

*GZZZZ!* The power unit lights turned from green and blue to red. An alarm started sounding and Isaac, nervous of course tried to get the energy cell out of the slot. As he, with a lot of effort started pulling, he just moved it the wrong way and it sounded he broke something, and without a second to see what happened, the power unit blew ip.

"Agh! Fuck!" Isaac yelled as soon as the small explosion made him start flying against his will, he was going rather fast and against a wall, so he tried using his thrusters. But... why weren't they working and making him slow down?

"Awww damn! Come on... work dammit!" He was heading towards that big metal wall, it wouldn't be much of a nice landing.

"Come on! Don't let me die on my first day!" Somehow someone heard his prayers and his thrusters started working... but not as soon as they should have "... Yes!... Uh? Agh!"

He had hitted himself, a bit slower but still pretty hard against the surface of the wall... he wasn't instantly unconcious but as he bounced from the really hard wall, he saw someone flying towards him... it was Gilmore... then his resistance didn't last longer and he passed out.


	2. what we have in common

**I thank all of you who posted a review for my fic... I'm really glad as it is my first publication on . Besides it's nice to hear an unknown person say that what you imagined and wrote is actually good. I hope to see more reviews and maybe longer... I can improve if you tell me what's wrong. Thanks, again.**

* * *

Isaac continued with his tale... a sad tale, but one important to remember as it was the one that most reminded him of one person... or ideal of a person that kept him alive on the Sprawl.

"So... I woke up at the hospital, there were some voices around the room, none I recognized... but one that caught my atenttion..."

Inmersing again in his story he remembered again the things he saw and felt.

He was looking at a ceiling that wasn't from his apartment. He wasn't floating abandoned out in sapce so... where was he?

"Mr. Clarke? Are you conscious? Can you hear me clearly?" It was the voice of a woman.

"I-I think I'm okay... where am I?" His head hurt, when he reached his head with his hand he felt he had bandages on it.

"You hit yourself pretty badly on the head Mr. Clarke, you're lucky that your back or your legs didn't even suffer a scratch"

"Damn... my head hurts..." He was still getting used to it, he had never had bandages on his head. He had finally sat down on the stretcher he was laid on.

"You'll be back to work soon, you take..." She said as she took a bottle of pills of one of her pockets "... these, 1 before lunch and one before bedtime everyday and you should be fine with the pains until it heals, you should be alright by the end of the week"

He looked at the woman, astonished, she was beautiful, and seemed to be doing her job just fine, just enough to say she was pretty smart, besides, she looked kinda his age. "Um... Thank you... Ms... um..."

"Brennan, Nicole Brennan..." She took a few steps away towards the door, opened it and said: "Well, you are alright Mr. Clarke, if you feel anything out of normal you come here for a checkup, I'll see you for how much time you'll have to be without working, leave a day or two depending on how you feel to rest and then go back to work..." She had quite a pleasant smile on her face, looked very atractive and honest in her smile.

"Well… for now I think we should stop" Isaac felt tired... both mentally and physically tired, after all they had escaped a few hours ago.

"What? Come on! It was getting good..." Ellie sounded like a kid expecting a bedtime story. It wasn't that she was too curious or nosy... maybe Isaac was a good narrator?

"I'll tell you more later, let me rest for a little while... I'm still pretty tired from what's happened..." The look on his face showed how tired and... relieved he was now. As he said, he was done running. "Oh... and Ellie?"

"What?"

"I'm sorry that because of me... well... you lost your eye... I really am, and I'll never be able to pay you for saving me... I owe you a lot" He just said that and just let himself fall onto a long seat behind and used it as bed. It didn't take a single minute and he was already asleep.

Ellie was speechless... normally she would have joked back, told him he was a bastard, a fool or even that it was nothing and smile. But she couldn't... normally she would see people saying they were sorry or that they owed you a lot without really feeling that. But Isaac looked different, maybe it was finally dealing with his guilt about Nicole... or something else?

"Agh! Ellie you are thinking too fucking much..." She said under her breath and leaned back on the seat... and once in a while looked back to watch Isaac sleeping. He looked... cute. Not like she felt attracted... more like when you see someone happy, peaceful, free.

She then leaned an remembered everyone who she lost. Now she was technically alone, her parents died on earth before she left and she didn't have any syblings. All of her friends died on the sprawl, and even if they were still alive... the explosion could have killed them.

She would never hear Sorenson's jokes, drink with Susan, her best freind, until they passed out or even... see Kaleb anymore. She couldn't help but feel sad... and alone...

She tried closing her eyes and sleep, it took quite a while for her to actually make it.

* * *

An hour or two later, Isaac woke up and looked around... he got up and looked through the crystal that kept them safe from space. It looked... like nothing, it was all the same... all the time.

He walked towards the pilot area and saw Ellie sleeping. She saw a tear on her cheek, he would have wiped it out but thought it would look like a stupid romantic melodrama if he did it and Ellie would probably yell at him.

He sat silently for a moment on the seat beside Ellie. Looked at her carefully... without missing any detail. Her mistreated brown hair with poorly done tails on the side, dirty face, patch on her eye, ragged clothes... no one would ever look at her like that... but somehow those same things that made her look that horrible... made her really unique... but something was wrong, besides the fact he was staring at her too much.

She had a weird look on her face... she was sweating and frowning and suddenly without notice she got up and pointed her plasma cutter at Isaac's face.

"Whoa! Whoa! It's me Isaac!" He felt afraid of her for a second thinking she would shoot before realizing she stopped having a nightmare.

She still pointed directly at his face... her eyes wide open, a frown on her face and she was breathing hard. Suddenly she just dropped the plasma cutter aside and sat down covering her face and started crying... Isaac didn't know what to say. He never saw her like that, not even when she was about to cry when he made her leave him on goverment sector.

He got a little closer to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. When he did that, Ellie uncovered her face. Her eyes red and her face a little bit red too. She just managed to whisper:

"I'm sorry..." Then she just fell on his shoulder. He still didn't know what to say, he managed to survive or repair complicated systems, but he couldn't handle a woman crying.

"It's okay..." He held her a bit while she was still clinging to him.

"No it's not! Nothing is okay anymore..." she said while still sobbing.

"Tell me about it... you don't need to keep it to yourself"

"I can't... I musn't... I... I don't know anymore..."

"I can help... I might be a nerd who just recovered from almost becoming a lunatic but hey... I'm still in one piece and fine... let me help you Ellie, let me repay you"

Sobbing a little bit, Ellie looked at him. Considering if Isaac would be the best person to open up to. Well, she had made him talk about his dead girlfriend, what difference did it make?

"Sure... why not, it's not like the people I'll tell you about would feel embarrased... ha.." Her irony hurt, he knew he was making her do something difficult, painful... but maybe it was for the best if she let it all out.

"It's just that I... remembered. For a few hours I had forgotten who I lost, and now when I calmly remembered... I realized... I lost all the people I knew on the Sprawl" She wasn't looking at Isaac, but at space. "I loved them all... I assume, most of them cared about me the same way... but I keep thinking how they all died. Susan, my best friend, died protecting me from one of those things... and I killed what used to be her. Sorenson, the funniest guy in the world... he died while escaping, last thing I saw was his body being blown up by a contact beam another guy was using, or even... Kaleb"

"Kaleb... was he your friend too?" He had found audioo files were that man Kaleb and Ellie told about their progress on their escape and finally... his death protecting her.

"Kaleb died protecting me..." A few tears rolled down her cheeks, she wasn't going to fall apart... for Isaac, it was more shocking to see Ellie let a few tears go while pretending to be allright than to see her crying like a child. "... He died pushing me aside... the bastard killed all those things behind us... I could have saved him... I should have... but now it doesn't matter, does it? Haha... ha"

"Ellie... you don't have to say that... you couldn't do anyth-"

"DON'T tell me... what I could or couldn't do... you weren't there! For you it's easy to say!... you haven't gone through this!" As he heard her, he just could think of Nicole... when he knew she was dead, he didn't cry, didn't think a second time about just running away from the Ishimura, because he knew from even before that she was dead... but didn't accept it.

"At least we have something in common..." Ellie was still half smiling, half crying.

"What is that?"

"You lost your girlfriend and... I lost my boyfriend..."

After that. Isaac didn't say anything, Ellie didn't say anything. They both sat gloomy and with a heavy atmosphere on the ship... not even half a day had passed... and it already felt like an eternity.


	3. I don't owe you anything

**I'm very happy seing more and more reviews every time I update... it really makes me happy to see how people like what I wrote (and it seems I inspired some people to start uploading IsaacXEllie fics hahahahaha. Nah, that's just being an asshole) I'm really confused on how to go on... what's going to be the "turnabout" of this situation between them both, I now tried to continue more on Isaac and Nicole... well, expect an at least decent climax and ending for this story... I'm really interested in seeing this go on smoothly. Sorry If I'm not uploading with regularity, but you know how it is... school and all that. Well... see ya soon, take care and please enjoy.**

* * *

2 hours had passed and not a single word had been said, Isaac couldn't try to tell her to cheer up and Ellie didn't know how to say she was sorry for saying such a thing.

They even ate, or sat at the side of the other but... not a single word came from their lips.

While Isaac sat besides Ellie, he looked at her. She looked terrible... besides the injuries and all she got on the Sprawl. Maybe he had screwed up... or maybe, just maybe, she was dealing with the same he did.

Ellie herself, just could think about Kaleb. How they met at the CEC, how they started dating... everything was coming back so fast... not like her memories went to obvlivion but while focusing on surviving she forgot about her friends, so it was common to think about it when you have time to actually think.

Isaac couldn't stand it, so he stood up and headed to the back part of the ship. He sat there and looked in the opposite direction to her, he wasn't going to sleep, he couldn't sleep. But at least he didn't have to look her in her in the eyes... the eye. But, someone had to take the first step.

"I forgot I had to continue my story... ha...are you still interested?"

"..." Ellie didn't say anything... she still had mixed feelings about the situation.

"Well, I'm starting where I ended last time... I remember that after I left the hospital I..."

After Isaac left the hospital, his head beated, like a healthy heart... but every time his head did that he just wanted to grab a plasma cutter and cut his head off.

But what was in his head more than the pain, was Dr. Brennan. She was beautiful and so nice. It would be stupid to say love at first sight but... he didn't know any other definition for what he felt.

He would definetly try to see her again... he just had to go to the hospital again... not injuring himself obviosuly. He still had a check up the next day, so it seemed like a chance.

So he did the other day, he went to the hospital and at reception he said he had an apointment with the Dr.

"I'm sorry sir, Dr. Brennan is out for a second, she'll be back anytime soon... wait in her office, when she gets here I'll tell her you're there", she indicated with a locator, the place where her office was.

Once he got in he looked around. There was a picture of her and an old man, maybe her father or something, and it looked recent. Shelves filled with books, mostly medicine books, but there were some novels. What he was most surprised about was the fact that she had books in paper, these days you wouldn't see books, but rather text files. She must like reading on paper... and all that reading a real book is about.

He then sat on a chair. Kept looking and trying to discover who Nicole Brennan was.

"I was told you'd ve here..." It was Nicole, beautiful and happy as he saw her the day before.

"Yeah, I came for the check up... you didn't give me a time so... I tried to come at a decent hour..." He felt nervous but at least he wasn't having problems to talk.

"So... ..." She said as she sat on the chair across the desk. How are you feeling?" She was also typing into the hologram computer some stuff. Maybe looking for his profile.

The check up went smoothly, she checked his injuries, nothing serious. So she gave him green light to go to work the next day.

"Well, I think you're good to go. Keep taking the pills if you feel pain again... but I doubt there's more to it... you can go"

"Thanks" He shaked lightly her hand and started walking out... but he stopped right before he opened the door.

"Um... Dr.?" He said as he turned his head and looked at her.

"Yes Mr. Clarcke?" She looked at him curious, some would have said that what he wanted was obvious, but she was just... curious.

"I know that if I leave this office now I might not get a second chance to say something..." he wasn't sweating, nor shaking... but the fact that he was nervous was absolute.

"I'm not following you..."

"I was wondering i-if you wanted to have a cup of coffee sometime..."

"Well... I..."

"I know that I said something stupid, and I shouldn't have, because I'm just a patient and as a patient I..."

"Sure, why not?"

"...shouldn't say that, you wouldn't be even interested because... um... what?"

"I said: 'sure, why not?'... Or should I do a check up for your ears? Hehehe..."

"O-okay, great!" He was kinda embarrased but he was really happy, that Nicole accepted his offer... he for a moment thought she'd have a boyfriend or something.

Later they exchangd numbers and made plans for later.

The next day, Isaac went to work, with no bandages or anything. Gilmore was the first one to recieve him at the lobby.

"How are you kid? You didn't get too screwed up did ya'?" Maybe Gilmore sounded like he was making fun of him but he was honestly concerned about him, after all he was kinda in charge of him on his first day.

"I'm fine, nothing serious, sir" He walked past him and he started following him.

"You got us worried for a second. After all, not everyday a power cell blows up right beside you. But don't worry, they discovered the slot for the cell caused it, so it's not your fault, kid" He talked fast and clear.

"Thanks, sir" Isaac was distracted, he wasn't interested in how he could have ended up in bed resting for months or how he could have lost his life. He thought about Nicole Brennan.

Maybe to someone else he would look like a teenager with some dumb crush on someone... but he had this feeling that it just had something more in it.

The day went smooth, two assignments on the mines, repairing a drill and unjamming an elevator, a calibration of the doors in the hospital sector and finally clearing up the mess from the explosion of the antenna facility on government sector.

Isaac said goodbye to his mentor and hurried, he got to his apartment only to get changed and leave again. After all, he was meeting Nicole later that night.

"Why do you keep talking to me?" Interrupted Ellie to Isaac's story.

"Huh?"

"Why after me saying what I said, ignoring you like I did, doing everything I've done... you still talk to me?" Ellie wasn't looking at him yet, Isaac could only guess if it was embarrasment, hatred or whatever.

"Why wouldn't I talk to you?... Ellie, I told you before, I owe you a lot. I owe you an eye and I owe you my life..."

"I don't want you to owe me anything! I don't want you to be nice to me! Stop replacing people in my head!" She said after she turned around and faced him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Every time you act nice, or try to do something for me I can't shake it... you keep replacing people I want to remember... people I don't want to forget... people I... I need" She started crying, different from before now she was crying loudly and sobbing and did no longer pretend she was ok. She didn't have the strenght to do so now.

"Like Kaleb?" Isaac didn't have the slightest clue of what she could mean with what she said.

"Specially Kaleb! ...Sometimes I just wanna...!"

Suddenly she grabbed him tightly like if she was threatening him... they were close, so close they both could hear the sound and warmth of each others breath. They could even smell the blood on their clothes and skin. In other situation she would have pulled him towards her and kissed him like there was no tomorrow... but she just hadn't the courage to do so, so she punched him in the eye.

"Ouch! What was that for!" He was putting one of his hands over his eye. It was really going to get swollen.

"That's for the eye... now for your life..." She took the plasma cutter she grabbed earlier and pointed it to him.

She shot towards the floor and threw away the plasma cutter... "Let's say I tried to kill you and I missed, now you don't owe me shit... now leave me alone, Isaac"

"But Ellie...!" He tried touching her shoulder, but she hit his hand even before he touched her.

"Don't you dare, or I swear next time I will shoot you"

He moved away... knowing he couldn't force her to calm down or anything like that.

He sat, one more time in the back of the ship, forcing himself to sleep, obviously he couldn't because of his eye, it did get swollen pretty bad.

The only thing he could do was... once in a while look at her staring at the stars.

He started understanding what she was going through... what she was facing...

She would have to face the death of her friends and boyfriend... sooner or later.

But he wondered, she just punched him, insulted him and threatened to shoot him... why did he still care for her?

Why after having so many reasons to hate her... he felt like he loved her?


	4. How the time goes by

The hologram computer displayed the time left for arrival: 1 day and 12 hours. How could time go so slow? How could time just feel like it stopped when the enviroment is tense and awkward between two people?

As much as Isaac wanted to say something to Ellie to convince her to talk to him again, he was certain that it was a process, ignoring how long it would be, she had to do to get on with her life. He himself technically took 3 years and two human lifes to do so. He wished the best for her... and maybe more.

The time was spent, sleeping, checking the controls of the ship... but no words were said.

Ellie took her time to think, remember and reconsider stuff. She was remembering when she got to the CEC facilities on the Sprawl. It had been exactly... 4 years ago.

"That's right... I started working at the CEC on the Sprawl around a year before Isaac had lived that hell on the Ishimura... poor bastard. I didn't have any major problems except the fact that I..."

She had no major issues when she started working there rather than the fact that she didn't know anybody. At first she was just a cargo handler while she did the pilot training and received her license for public, private and cargo transport. During her days at the cargo bay, she met Sorensen and Susan, her very first friends... they even were part of the group in pilot training.

Sorensen was older but less mature and a clown by nature... he himself got kicked out two or three times out of the instruction for trying to play funny guy, though it could have been more if Ellie hadn't cover up for him. Susan, was more quiet. She inicially aproached Ellie to ask her how to do a certain instruction they were given, from there they talked how they both came from the Earth and from there it was common sense that they became friends.

After 1 year and receiving their licenses, she finally started working at the cargo pilot group along with Sorensen and Susan. It was there were she met HIM.

She met Kaleb, their captain, and boss. He would be taking care of them for a while. It wasn't long before they became close, Kaleb always gave a certain order and Ellie accomplished it succesfully, unless it was just him acting foolishly. If he acted like an asshole on a rookie, she told him straight that he was being one. If he was being a good guy... she mostly didn't say but, tried to show her appreciation.

When they started going out or rather... fell in love, was around two years ago. She and him were left alone working overtime to move a delicate cargo that their supervisor hadn't seen on the shipment list. So basically they were saving their superiors ass when:

"Goddammit, Langford! If we move this using the relay station, we'll be here all night! Are you stupid?"

"Shut the fuck up, captain! If we don't use the relay station, that leaves moving the ship around the cargo bay and you know that placed has all the squad ships stationed, we'll probably crash the ship and damage the cargo!"

It was obvious they thought differently on how to move that certain cargo to it's destination. Going to the relay station assured them safety to the cargo but it's rout took them all around the Sprawl and it would take hours. But Kaleb's idea was to go through the cargo bay, Ellie's old workplace, if they wen't through there it would took them as much one hour, but all the ships were stationed there and it would prove to be difficult to move through such a small space.

"You're such a stubborn bastard when you really wanna be one , did you know?"

"Shut it, Langford... and you better do this thing. I still am above you and I can fire you"

"Then do so! What should I care? Think I would suffer if I didn't see you again?"

"But I would goddammit!"

Ellie didn't know how to react, she didn't see that coming. She just tried to figure what to say but she just managed to say:

"W-what?"

"Ellie... you're the most stubborn, irritating, stupid and oblivious woman I've ever met in my entire life!... but that's exactly because I... love you"

He jut leaned and kissed her. She just didn't react fast enough to kick him away or something like that.

"Now... you know I'm not good at this... so... um... go through any way you want... but let's finish this"

"I... um... well... o-okay..."

The rest of the time they spent doing that assignment, Ellie was smiling and blushing as she never had before. She was extremely happy to have heard what she heard and to have been kissed, like she was a teenager again. Some may call it stupid and some may call it, ridiculous... but it's undeniable that the first kiss in a relationship is the best kiss.

They started going out since then, it always went low profile, because it wouldn't be seen correctly that a captain and his subordinate were going out. It was a happy time in her life.

"Then what happened?" Someone interrupted her thoughts... or... were those her thoughts?

"Huh?" Ellie looked back and saw Isaac sitting and saw him leaned forward like listening to something.

"You were telling me about Kaleb... and your friends..."

"W-what the...?" She just realized she had been thinking out loud.

"It's okay... now I can see why you fell in love with him... he sounds kinda like you in a certain aspect..."

"W-well... uh..." She was hesitating, and looked away because she was sure she was blushing.

"Hey... there's no need for that... at least you're talking to me... hey, should I carry on were I left off on my story?"

"Do whatever you want... I'm gonna ignore you" She still wanted to keep that attitude... so she wouldn't show that she was changing her mind, although she didn't realize that she was talking... she felt lighter, dropped a heavy burden by saying it.

"Well... where was I...? Oh, yeah! I was saying that later that night I was meeting with Nicole, so I..."

He was meeting Nicole later so he decided to hurry up to the tram station and as soon as he got to the shopping area, he entered the "Hobby cafe". Lousy name, but one of the greatest cafes on the whole station, beign one of the last to keep using real coffee beans instead of instant or something like that, maybe her taste for coffee was as her taste in reading books.

He got there an hour earlier, but as soon as he got sight of Nicole entering the cafe he waved at her and made signals. She quickly greeted him and sat across him from the table.

"So... um... how are you doing?" He didin't know how to start... he was hoping she started talking and he just had to reply.

"Oh, great! A little tired from work but, nothing I haven't suffered before while being a Senior Medical officer, hahaha..."

"Hahaha..." He just managed to laugh that a bit, as he didm't know what to talk to her about... but he remembered some stuff about her office that he could use "...Hey, so... I remembered when I saw you yesterday at your office... you had books, but the real kind of books, not text logs"

"Oh... yeah, it's some sort of thing I have for it... my father used to be a collector and had a library until he went out of business because of the text files that now are sold"

"Oh... sorry..." He felt he had done something stupid... even though he didn't expect that result, it kinda felt like it was his fault"

"Don't mind it... I'm happy I have you here to tell you"

"Oh... yeah, it's okay... no p-problem!" He felt like this was going worst and worst by the second. He was bad at noticing flirting from women, differently from women who are skillful to notice it.

"So... Isaac. Shall we order?"

"Yeah... sure"

She had a black coffee, specifically colombian coffee, at least it seemed he did something right. He ordered an Irish coffee. Both of them, had a croissant with it.

For the next half an hour, the talk went better. Isaac was talking more confidently and Nicole seemed to be responding correctly to his actions. They later asked for the check... but Isaac had forgot something...

"Oh... damn!... my... wallet... I think I... lost it and I can't pay without it... I don't even have my credit cards or anything..."

"Well... then I'll pay, it's not like I'm not enjoying, so it's okay this time"

"But I can't let you p-"

"Don't be so stubborn. If you don't have money then I have to... you'll repay me somehow..." She winked and looked for her wallet in her purse and paid.

After that they started walking around a garden built inside of the station, and as now it was dark, they could walk around quietly. There were lots of flowers, bushes and trees, and a beautiful fountain. It looked like someone took a lot of care when building it.

"Again, Nicole. I'm so sorry for not having been able to pa-"

"And again! I said I didn't mind, I'm happy doing it..."

As they walked alongside the fountain, he felt like he couldn't do anything else wrong, and how wrong he was.

"Well, admit that at least I should-"He started to apologize again while he turned to face her, but accidentaly he hitted her in the face and dropped her into the fountain."- Oh fuck!"

Isaac quickly jumped into the fountain and helped Nicole, who now had a nose bleed and was soaking wet. He just managed to say he was sorry over and over while she repeated over and over that it was nothing... at the end, he lent her his jacket and he walked her home, which seemed to be quite near from his apartment.

"I guess... that you must hate me right now. I'll repay you the money of the coffee as soon as I can and I'll make sure I get that ja-"

He stopped talking. Couldn't talk, couldn't breathe and couldn't feel anything besides what he was feeling, a warm, surprising and always well recieved kiss. As soon as Nicole broke it up she said:

"How many times do I have to interrupt your apologies? For you to understand I like you as much as I assume you like me?" She looked him with a smile on her face and this time he kissed her. She started opening the door and as she entered the apartment:

"Call me... I'd like to hear you say it next time we meet..." Then the door closed and he couldn't still believe what just happened, that day, he ran to his apartment, jumped around, sang cheesy love songs and felt like he was the luckiest man alive.

From there, Isaac and Nicole kept seeing eachother, most of the times without accidents and without emergency rooms at the hospital. After 3 weeks of that they started oficcially going out.

It was a great relationship. They seemed to be made for each other, they might have some differencies sometimes, or different tastes, but it was all a really good thing because they still loved each other.

Three years later he pushed her to apply for serving in the Ishimura for six months, there of all places. They talked almost every day. And they still would saw eachother together in the future. Or that was like that until the red marker was uncovered and all of those horrible situations started. Isaac's participation in the Ishimura and then on the Spawl finally destroying it's influence.

"And... that's pretty much it about how she and I started dating her and all that" He wasn't looking at Ellie. Didn't plan to.

"Hahahahahahahahaa...!" She just started laughing like she was crazy.

"W-what's so funny?"

"She... she just sounds like a male version of Kaleb hahahahahahha!" Someone could have called her crazy hyena without a mistake for how she was laughing.

He wasn't going to say a thing, because as she was now laughing, it was better than anything. Specially some cases of depression.

As soon as she calmed down from the laughter explosion she suffered. She sat normally and said harshly: "Not like I'm interested in Nicole or anything..."

"Well... it was you who asked, Ellie"

"Well... now I regret it, ok? Now let me be" She crossed her arms and looked away.

"Aww come on, we we're talking just fine right now!" he said as he tried to reach her.

"How do I make you understand I want you to leave me alone!" She stood up and raised her hand and was getting ready to slap him when he grabbed her hand and pushed her to the wall really fast.

"How do I make you understand that I... that I..." He couldn't say it... he couldn't. He might feel it but the words wouldn't come out.

"That you what! Hate me? Want me to leave you alone too? Or maybe...!"

"That I love you, Ellie! Don't you understand? I love you!"

The clock on the computer kept reducing the time they had to spend together alone inside the ship. Now it was showing: 23 hours... just 23 hours to sort out theirproblems... or sort out their feelings.

* * *

Well... it's been some time, I've been quite busy with school trying to not get yelled at because of my grades. I'm smart, my problem is that I don't study enough XD (That's just pretty words to say that I'm a lazy jerk XD) But enough about school... let's get into the fic you read! I feel kinda uncomfortable but honestly I also feel that if I didn't upload it soon, I would have never done it. I feel that the way I worked out this chapter is rather based on out of character situations... maybe. I kinda gave the story for both of them, no surprise why this is my longest chapter. From 1400 words aprox. to 2000 aprox. hahaha. Well, as always I hope you enjoyed and I want to specially thank: Painted7, McQueen 2.0, odalys-ortiz and other many readers who in such a nice way reviewed my fic. I'll be finishing this one soon... maybe one or two more chapters but I'll keep writing.

P.D: McQueen 2.0 please reply my pm about the pilot and an engineer community invitation you made me... if anyone can contact him... I'd be thankful XD. See ya all and take care.


	5. Together

Author's notes at the end.

* * *

"How do I make you understand that I... that I..." Isaac choked on his own words.

"That you what! Hate me? Want me to leave you alone too? Or maybe...!"

"That I love you, Ellie! Don't you understand? I love you!"

Worse than any monster, those words shocked Ellie. She was once shocked by Kaleb's confession... but she didn't expect it from Isaac. Not that she was prepared for anything of that kind.

For about 10 minutes she sat there quiet and Isaac knew better than to mess with her during that time.

She looked at the dark space outside and abruptly said: "Since when?"

Shocked that just a few minutes were necessary to make her talk. Such was his surprise that he just managed to blurt out a dumb sounding: "Huh? Since when what?"

"Since when do you feel like that you bastard!" She yelled roughly.

"Okay! Okay... um… I think I realized when we got to the government sector back in the station as soon as we got there…"

As soon as they got there Isaac couldn't decide if he was happy they managed to finally get there and alongside that closer to the marker. But as he realized it he was in a total despair.

Their tunnel would bring every Necromorph left, Tiedemann's soldiers were challenging enough but now he had brought hell to that sector with that tunnel.

Now everyone was doomed to face death even if he succeeded to destroy the marker. He kept walking and talking to Ellie but he knew what was going to happen, he wouldn't make it out alive.

As he was thinking neither would she, they both found the gunship that now was moving them towards help. She obviously reached it first and in the way there he knew exactly what he had to do.

He faced the ship and faced the hologram panel displayed for closing the hatch to the gunship. As he closed it and forced an emergency launch cycle Ellie yelled at him:

"Isaac! What are you doing? Open the door right now! No. No! No, don't you dare, don't you dare launch this ship!" Ironically enough, her eye watering up, her voice breaking, it was too much for her, too much for him.

"Isaac!" She yelled one last time once he initiated the airlock sequence.

"It's your best chance Ellie. You got life support, comms… Hey, you're gonna be rescued." Even his voice was breaking, his eyes watering and beyond that his entire psyche was totally destroyed. He knew he had to protect her.

"You bastard…" Said Ellie one last time. It would have been funny, if the situation had been different, to hear her say bastard for the thousandth time but now it was filled with sadness and angst.

"I need you to be rescued. I couldn't save Nicole, but I can save you Ellie. So, uh..." He knew the reason behind the fact that he wanted to save Ellie so bad. He felt something for her that he had just felt for Nicole herself. He cared for her like he hadn't cared for anyone in 6 years. He wanted to say "I love you Ellie" but he couldn't, even if it meant the last time he ever saw her. So he just said: "Bye"

"And that's pretty much it…" Isaac sat there as he finished his sort of tale.

Ellie didn't have that that angry look on her face… but she didn't look calm either. She just looked outside, Isaac did the same and said the best thing he could said in the moment.

"I once thought that being out in space would be like sailing in a sea of fireflies… I suppose reality is a bit harsh and cold. No matter what your answer is, Ellie. I want you to know that…"

Suddenly his mouth was covered by Ellie's hand. She was directly looking him to his eyes. And she said: "You know? You suck at this Isaac, I can't believe Nicole even started going out with you in the first place"

He felt like all his confession and feelings were squeezed, crushed shot at and basically what he suffered physically in the Titan station.

"So I guess that's a total no…" He tried standing up, but she held his shoulder and pushed him back.

"Don't be such a bastard! Every time I have something important to say you assume the worst thing possible! I hate that even though you feel like that you don't consider what I feel… you know how worried of losing you I was? You know how worried I was to let go the second man I had fell in love with?" She was now crying, she didn't pretend to hide it.

"Ellie, I-I…" But once again he was interrupted by her. She covered his mouth once again, leaned on to his ear and whispered three words he said to her earlier. And as soon as she did that she uncovered his mouth and placed carefully her lips on Isaac's as if waiting for a reply from him.

Isaac didn't hesitate and kissed her back, their escape from the marker wasn't half as good as how happy they were now. They kissed each other for a couple of minutes and when they broke it up they just looked at each other with embarrassed but happy faces.

When they stopped the clock read 20 hours and 40 minutes. The time spent was worth every word said, every action made and every decision made.

Time flies by, and in love it goes faster.  
They were just 3 hours apart from their destination and from the so wanted help.

They were both putting back their clothes in the middle of jokes and conversation.

"Ellie, can't you put some air conditioning? It's too hot in here!" He said while he adjusted his boots.

"It was you the one who was all '_Let's just do it like this besides the hotter the better' _if anyone is to blame is you, still I'm turning it on" She replied as she got her tank top back on her.

"You perverted bastard…" She muttered as the cold air started ventilating the hot air and the smell of love inside the ship.

"Well you still liked it, didn't you? Hehehe…" He laughed as he checked the functions of his suit.

"Well, yeah but…"

They kept arguing about small stuff along the way. And then he just stopped her and said:

"Hey Ellie… do you think they'll believe us? Can we really save everyone?" Things were happy until the, but Ellie wasn't worried, she knew what to do.

"Whatever it happens Isaac, you're not alone in this, and you'll never be alone again" She held his hand tight and both of them looked at the station in front of them.

"Thanks Ellie, let's do it… together" He looked at her eye with a smile on his face.

"You bet, you bastard" She smiled too.

"I love when you say so casually '_you bastard' _it's so cute"

"You bastard!" Yelled Ellie blushing.

The screen read just 10 minutes… 10 minutes of a whole trip that sorted feelings, fears and love of two tormented souls.

* * *

Finally... I'm really sorry to all of you that were anxious to read a closing to my first complete fic "Eye for an eye" I'm really honored that people found MY work good, I've never thought it'd be this popular among Dead Space fans... and without being too cocky I'm proud to be one of the first or if I'm not mistaken the first EllieXIsaac supporter who published a fic here.

This was all stopped and took long time to start over because of school and personnal issues with friends and loved ones. It's complicated but I hope all of you still enjoyed this last chapter.

I feel I kinda overused framed stories (a story inside another story) and those periods of silence between Isaac and Ellie. But I think it might have been justified by the fact both had a lot to deal with.

I'm grateful of the support and the whole enviroment all of you have built around this. I thank all of you once again and hope to see you again.


End file.
